


Good Different

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Eventual Smut, F/M, Makeup Sex, Pete's World, Pete's World Torchwood, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 08:39:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8006053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While out on a long, cold, dark, damp mission, Tentoo has a moment of very humanish weakness and gets hangry (anger fueled by hunger) and a domestic row ensues. Never fear, though. They make up with plenty of fluff and smut. Still, a lesson in maturity and growth in their relationship makes them stronger for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Different

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 - for the onelifenet prompt Torchwood, Part 2 – snuck in a reference to the dwsmutfest prompt: Spanktember “Wow… I did not know you were into that…” so I'm counting it. haha
> 
> Part 1 is General, but does have mild British swearing; part 2 is explicit because Rose made it smuttier than I intended. Naughty Rose. If you aren’t into smut, feel free to stop after part 1 because that is where the plot ends. If you are into smut, you probably need to read part 1 first to understand part 2, but no one’s judging, so…

**Part 1**

In the two months since Pete’s World had become his permanent home universe, the Doctor had learned a lot about life on the slow path. And how the love of his lives had grown and changed. Most of these realizations didn’t come all at once and were moments of beauty and maturity and very like watching a literal rose blossom, if he allowed himself such a cheesy thought. She captured more and more of his heart every day, even when he thought he already loved her with every cell in his part-human part-Time Lord body.

However. Some lessons in leading an ordinary life were more difficult than others. And some revelations about all that had changed in their time apart threw him off kilter. And sometimes, like tonight, those lessons and revelations collided in unexpected ways.

Really, this particular revelation couldn’t have come at a worse time. The three of them – Pete, Rose, and the Doctor – were crouched in an alley just off Piccadilly. It was smelly. Dark. Damp. 3 a.m. Plus the Doctor was hungry, and despite knowing that low blood sugar led to irritability and other negative emotions that he would regret once he had a snack, he was decidedly grumpy.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like working for this Torchwood. It was actually the best job he could reasonably expect, until the TARDIS was fully grown, that is. This Torchwood was decidedly the “family business,” and seeing as he was considered family, the “rules and regulations” were more like guidelines. And while he had a lab, he wasn’t entirely sure he had a desk and had never filled out a page of paperwork. He assumed he was making money. Rose had mentioned something about “direct deposit,” and he remembered setting up a bank account, and his credit card worked, so he felt confident he was pulling his weight as a part-human adult.

Like the successful (and living) Pete of this world, the Tyler family’s second-largest company was the antithesis of its prime universe version. This one was dedicated not to stopping the “alien horde” but to protecting the friendly aliens who sought asylum on Earth and to stopping the bad guys (whatever species they might be) from hurting any of Earth’s occupants (again, whatever species they might be) with as little violence and death as possible. Like the other Torchwood, this one was previously dedicated to finding the Doctor, but of course, here that was an effort led by Rose so it was in the name of returning the stars to their rightful place… and maybe a little bit about getting back to him, but of course everyone pretended it was strictly professional until she came back with him on her arm and a grin like they had never seen on her face. The other Torchwood employees were mostly good eggs, and Rose had a few kind and clever friends, all of whom could be trusted with the secret of his and Rose’s origins.

So, the Doctor found himself happily employed at his girlfriend’s family business, often laughing at what an unlikely sentence that was for HIM of all people to utter.

But back to the alley. He was certainly not laughing now. In fact, he was cursing the hostile alien they were tracking for its elusive tactics and cursing London for its constant wetness and cursing himself for not thinking to bring a banana and cursing this coat for being slightly longer than his old one so that he got it dirty and wet when he crouched in a puddle. The pair of Converses he had purchased here and worn tonight were not as comfortable as his old pair, either. He wondered if getting blisters was something he had to worry about now that he was part-human.

He held in his frustrations though. Pete rarely went along on missions, but was still both the boss and almost-sort-of-father-in-law that he needed to impress. Which was a bit ridiculous as he knew Rose first. Plus, he had practically blown up his lab the first week, and Pete had just laughed and collected his earnings from those who had participated in the office-wide bet. Still, tonight the Doctor held his tongue and thus, the rudeness he was born with.

A rustle from the end of the street brought him back to their current situation. They had just half a second to take in the vague shape of the aliens they had been following all night before a purple transmat beam swept in to help the bastards escape.

“Ugh! Now what?” Rose asked, with not a small amount of the annoyance the Doctor was feeling himself.

He started to form a witty reply that no doubt would have had her smiling again in no time, but noticed something that knocked off his equilibrium.

Rose wasn’t asking him. She was asking her dad.

Of course she was. Pete was in charge of the mission. Of the whole organization.

Still, it was like a punch in the gut. The Doctor blinked down at her, unnoticed. Before they were apart, she would have turned to him as her teacher and guide and the expert in a dangerous situation. But then they had been separated. It was only natural that the dad she had longed for her entire life had filled that role. A role that he should have been there to fill as she was growing up and was missing from her childhood.

All of this rationality of how this change was not only the proper chain of command but human and sensible, and true to Rose’s nature and past, was lost to the lack of banana and abundance of drizzling rain and wet canvas shoes and exhaustion in the Doctor’s system.

“Well,” Pete sighed, “nothing we can do tonight. I’ll have Malcolm trace the beam in the morning, but I doubt we’ll find anything worth chasing after. We may not have caught them, but we can rest satisfied they didn’t get away with their plan and the city is intact, at least from whatever they were.”

The three trudged down the steps of the nearby Tube station. Luckily, they were at one of the few with a 24/7 service, a convenient difference they didn’t take for granted in this universe with their line of work. Now in the light, Rose turned to the Doctor and took in his tight jaw, pale skin, and sad eyes.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Yeah,” he replied shortly. “Always alright.”

Rose raised a dubious eyebrow that silently told him “We’ll talk about this later.”

The Doctor hoped that _later_ was after he had some food and a night’s sleep and time to think up an excuse for his distance from her. Maybe she would forget all about it.

Under different circumstances, he would tell her about the Night Tube that started in her home universe in 2016, and they’d laugh about how Keisha and Shareen would be ecstatic about not having to ride the late bus after going clubbing. Then they’d try to spot the nocturnal aliens that got on and off at each stop. Easy to tell those apart from the drooping humans who were getting off late work shifts and the ones too drunk to remember their stop. Normally, he’d put his arm around her and let her drift off against his shoulder, and Pete would tell them not to worry about the paperwork or debriefing. To just go home. They would, and snuggle under the covers, where he would hold her and treasure her hum of contentment and know that all the differences he had to learn were so very worth it.

And while he still wanted all of those things, something impish in him refused to give in, to forgive her or himself or the weather or the aliens or the time of night. The frustration from the alley brewed like a tempest at sea within his soul, black and swirling and dangerous. Danger, that is, of him being a twat to the people he loved most.

So he continued to keep his mouth shut, but also to stand a decent distance away from where she sat. Sitting anywhere but next to her was out of the question, so he leaned against the back of the car instead, trying to avoid her investigative glances from a few seats away as Pete typed out a quick message to Jackie and made notes about their mission on his phone.

Rose gave up trying to read him and instead focused on helping Pete recall details for their report. Seeing the two of them working together usually made the Doctor so incredibly happy for her and so proud they had found each other: the daughter Pete had always secretly wanted and the father she had been denied.

But tonight, the Doctor was being a prat. A selfish, jealous prat. And it wasn’t about to go away just because he recognized the feeling.

Finally, blessedly, they arrived at their stop. After walking Pete to his car, they rode the lift to their flat in silence. Rose opened her mouth to speak a few times, but the Doctor ignored it. He unlocked the door to the flat with his sonic, just because he could. And perhaps to send a message, even if he was unclear exactly what that message was himself.

Fourteen hours after leaving, they both breathed a sigh of relief at being home.

They set about hanging coats up, taking off their grubby shoes in the entryway, turning on lights, etc. Down to her T-shirt and black jeans, she approached him cautiously, a hesitancy he hated in her expression.

“Wanna share a shower? Or maybe a hot bath?” She chewed her bottom lip as she waited for his answer, both knowing she wasn’t just asking about their method of getting clean.

“Rose…” he sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “You go ahead. I’m going to have a cuppa.” He jerked his hand toward the balcony instead of the kitchen, and she correctly interpreted it as code for brooding. She nodded and folded her arms tightly across her chest, as if physically holding in her emotions. She turned to go, but didn’t get far before she stopped and turned around again.

“No.”

“What?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

“No, we are not doing this. You don’t get to say you’re always alright and shut me out and not tell me anything when you’re sad about god knows what.” Her passion grew as she let the words spew out. “We’re in a relationship now, Doctor. It’s different. It’s supposed to be different now.”

“ _Supposed_ to be? What does that mean?” He furrowed his eyebrows and tried to focus on her anger instead of his own.

Tears stung in her eyes as she tried to form an answer. He waited, warring between the instinct to comfort her and the storm inside of him.

“You. We agreed. You promised me it wouldn’t be this way, remember? That you…” She trailed off with a shuddering breath and turned away to wipe at her eyes without him seeing. “I could tell, all night, there was something wrong and I couldn’t ask because Dad was there, but there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“It’s not important, I promise.” He turned away and retreated to the kitchen, but she followed him.

She stepped in front of him and looked him straight in the eye.

“I don’t know what it is, and it’s probably nothing you’ve built up to be something in your head, but I do know this: You know what happens if you don’t talk to me about it and let it grow and become something awful? And then every time something that really is important comes up, you do the same thing you’ve always done? Someday we won’t be able to stop running from it anymore. Someday you’re going to build a wall that even I can’t climb, Doctor. And _that_ is what terrifies me.”

The Doctor pushed past her and set about making tea. She noted the two mugs, their respective favorites, and waited for his response. It was a long time coming, however. They sat at the kitchen table, taking turns dunking biscuits in their tea and drinking in silence. When they were done – and quite full as they had eaten nearly an entire tin of biscuits between the two of them – he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

“Better?” he asked.

“A little,” she admitted with a tiny upturn of her lips. “Doesn’t change what I said though. I mean it, Doctor. We don’t have to tell each other every little thing, but I do need to know you trust me, especially when it means you can hardly look at me.”  

He met her eyes with plenty of guilt in his own and made his decision. He knew it would come out eventually, but she didn’t look anywhere close to letting him get away with it unspoken, which it surely would if they slept on it, he knew.

“It was… a lot of things that have nothing to do with you. Mainly little human things. Low blood sugar, for one.” He raised his tea mug and drained the last drops to buy himself time and perhaps another hint of a smile.

“But not only that, was it?” Damn, she was too clever for her own good.

“I was jealous,” he mumbled, staring down at his empty mug with its blue swirls and specks of gold. He gripped it tightly so he wouldn’t subconsciously try to take her hands in his own and pull her off to something more comfortable – that bath or bed or anywhere that they wouldn’t have to have this discussion.

“Of who?” she asked, truly puzzled as she reviewed the night in her head.

He blushed deep red as the confession came out. It sounded like such utter nonsense now as he voiced it.

“You asked Pete what the plan was. Not me.” He flicked his eyes up to hers but kept his head low and contrite, hoping the sheepish move would inspire her famous compassion.

Rose blinked and let her mouth drop open a bit.

If only he would have stopped there. If only he would have let her reassure him. If only he would have said _of course he trusted her_ and left it at that. If only he wouldn’t have opened his big gob and babbled out of nervous habit.

“It’s just, like you said, some things are different here, and I know we’ve talked about this, and you know I love most of the differences, and not just the change in _us_ , and being a proper couple, but the changes in us as people, as individuals. But sometimes I forget things have changed and sometimes I really miss the old way, even if only because it was familiar, and after things have been one way for so long and suddenly they aren’t, it’s confusing and not a little bit frightening…”

He probably would have and could have gone on for an hour, but Rose was staring at him again, this time in a decidedly harder and darker way than before.

“I know,” she replied with force. “I had to do it alone, remember? And eventually Pete accepted me as his own, but it wasn’t easy. What you saw tonight? That took _years_ , Doctor. I thought you’d be happy…” Hurt crumpled across her face as she tried to sort out what they were even arguing about. He wanted to stop this. He wanted to soothe away the pain of her past. But this part-human body wouldn’t let him. His anger at everything and nothing in particular bubbled up and overflowed.

“See? Different! And I don’t know where I fit sometimes, Rose! That used to be me you turned to, and now it’s not, and that’s fine, well not _fine_ , but understandable, but it’s just I never know what to expect now! _Everything_ is up for debate. Every building and planet and solar system is in a slightly different place. Everything I thought I knew is altered just slightly, so I can’t immediately rely upon centuries of knowledge. It’s maddening!”

“And my counterpart in this universe was a bloody Yorkshire terrier! You can’t expect everything in this universe to be the same!”

Her explosion broke something invisible between them. His had done the cracking, but hers had smashed right through it. A glass wall neither had been conscious of building.

They froze for a solid minute. Matching challenging glares, determined frowns, and clenched fists softened until finally he did the only thing he could do.

He giggled.

And he couldn’t stop, as hard as he tried.

Luckily, this time she joined him.

“This world’s Rose Tyler was a dog, Doctor!” she laugh-whined. “A frilly, little lap dog that Jackie carried in her handbag!”

“Can’t get much different than that,” he admitted, no longer bothering to hide his ridiculous grin.

“Oh, love,” she sighed, wiping away her tears of laughter and frustration and confusion all mixed together. She took his hands in her own at long last, and kissed his knuckles. “Thank you for telling me.”

He nodded and tilted his lips up in a rueful smile, knowing he was forgiven, but needing to say it away.

“I’m sorry, Rose. I meant it when I promised you I’d trust you. And I do. Always. We’re in this together. For better or worse.”

Her eyes widened in surprise just as his widened in horror. His mouth moved but no sound came out. He had just quoted the wedding ceremony of her culture without knowing if she’d even want –

“Maybe things have changed.” She cut off his panicked train of thought and rubbed her thumb against the side of his hand. He relaxed as his brain finally caught on that she wasn’t backing away at the hint of marriage. No, she was looking at him with pure hope and utter faith in him. He pressed his thumb down on hers in a squeeze of understanding. 

 “I _am_ happy for you and your family, Rose. I was a selfish, jealous bastard tonight and I knew it and I just couldn’t help it. Forgive me?”

“Yes, you were. And yes, I forgive you.” She donned a mischievous smile as she stood. “Now. How about that bath?” 

He could never refuse an invitation like that and told her so.

* * *

**Part 2**

In an instant, Rose found herself emitting a squeal of shock as she found herself being scooped up and carried to their bathroom. They alternated snogging and undressing each other, wordlessly agreeing to a quick makeup session as they waited for the water to fill the huge, beautiful tub. To think, she had thought the oversized tub a waste of luxury when she first moved in, hardly using it or intending to stay in this universe long. Now she thanked all of the lucky stars that he was making her see as he lifted her and set her – naked and wanting – on the counter. He slipped a finger between them, apparently set on driving her mad with desire. She noticed between sighs of ecstasy that he had turned the water pressure in the tub on low so he would have plenty of time to have his way with her. The cheeky git.

He finally thrust into her, and she held tightly to his upper back with one hand and his arse with the other. God, he felt good. She might just pick a silly fight with him again if this was what came of it. She swiftly decided against it, however, at the distressed tones of reassurance against her ear.

“Never want to shut you out, Rose.” And “Could never do this without you.” And “So proud of you.” And her favorite, a litany of her name and “I love you, I love you so much, Rose. Want you forever.”

She responded in kind to these gasps and mumbles with the same in her own words: “Want all of you, Doctor” as he gripped her hip, “Yours, I’m always yours” as he massaged her breast and teased her nipples, “Love you, love you, my Doctor. I love you,” cut off by her own increasing moans as he made her soar with pleasure. She reveled in her orgasm, squeezing around him and encouraging his sloppy, desperate thrusts with her head thrown back and mouth panting and lips deep red from their kisses and nails digging into his skin. He came just in time to extend her own climax and the thought flitted through her mind that despite the fights that came with it, spending her life with someone equally as wild and complex and passionate as herself was so wonderfully worth it.

They recovered with lazy smiles and kisses and nuzzles. They disentangled themselves and he helped her off the counter in just enough time to observe that the water was just about to spill out over the top of the tub.

“Doctor! The water!” But he was already on it, her hero (as she couldn’t really move away from leaning against the counter just yet). She did take the opportunity to admire his bum, however, as he rushed to turn off the water and drain a bit so they wouldn’t cause a flood by getting in. She had always liked a nice bum. And he certainly had the good smile and really great hair to go with it.

“Are you ogling my posterior, Rose Tyler?” He caught her as he turned around.

“So what if I am?” she challenged, despite the blush creeping up her cheeks and across her chest. His smirk was too much. It was well past 4 a.m. by this point, she hadn’t eaten anything but tea-soaked biscuits for hours, and her mind was swimming in a cocktail of exhaustion and post-orgasmic bliss. So really, her next line couldn’t be helped:

“What if I’m examining it?”

He cocked a curious eyebrow and her mouth went on, uninhibited by her usual insecurities.

“What if I’m thinking you still need to be punished?”

“Do I?” he sounded intrigued, and more turned on than she was expecting.

“Yeah,” she improvised. “Maybe you do.” She swallowed as he licked his lips.

“And what kind of punishment do you suggest?”

“I was thinking of… Of…” Her courage faltered as she realized she was saying this out loud.

He took pity on her and wrapped her up in his arms once more. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, though they were quite alone.

“Were you thinking of spanking me, Agent Tyler?”

She nodded against his shoulder and bit back a grin at his use of her title.

“That sounds entirely justifiable. I accept your punishment. Though I can’t promise I won’t enjoy it.”

“Oh, wow…” Rose breathed in relief and renewed arousal. She pulled back to read his expression. (Ok, _and_ because she loved seeing the dark chocolate of his eyes as he got turned on.) “I did not know you were into that…”

“Well, I have been very bad lately. I was a twat to the woman I love earlier tonight. Not to mention just about every day I think about fucking her on the job.”

“You think about it while on the job, or you think about doing it on the job?” Her voice was still shaking a little, but she was thanking him with kisses and nips up his neck, so she hoped he understood how welcome his dirty talk was.

“Both, sometimes,” he admitted and slipped a hand down to her bum.

“That is very naughty of you. I will certainly have to discipline you for thoughts like that.”

They both giggled and let their hands wander, just enjoying feeling each other’s skin. Instead of getting steamy again, however, as planned, Rose yawned. Yawns, as everyone knows, are contagious, so the Doctor didn’t stand a chance. Their bodies betrayed them and they admitted defeat.

“Another night,” he promised. “Now how about that bath?”

“Sounds perfect.” She grinned up at him sleepily.

After their soak, with their muscles relaxed and all the grime and anger and tension of the night washed away, the couple made their way to bed, not bothering with jim jams. They enjoyed their naked cuddle and slept long and hard, dreaming very dirty dreams of many more intimate nights to come.


End file.
